how does gdb read type descriptions for structures

how does gdb read type descriptions for structures

[Roul Oldenburger]

Hello everyone,

most time I am only using gdb and most time via ddd but I have got a 
question for gdb internals.

I am trying to reconstruct type descriptions for a tree of structures 
from stabs debug informations included in executables.

Using for example 'ptype my_structure' in gdb delivers me components and 
types of my_structure but it looks like gdb prints part of the source 
code ... or does it evaluate its symbol tables or stabs information via 
BFD directly?

Furthermore I need to know the offset/address of each component of each 
substructure in the structure tree ... we are using quit complex 
structures.

Using 'objdump --stabs' I will get all the information/ type 
descriptions I need but I hope there is another way to retrieve this 
information rather than working it out from the text in .stabstr.

How does gdb does it?

Thanks for your help

Roul Oldenburger

Re: how does gdb read type descriptions for structures

[Daniel Jacobowitz]

On Fri, Aug 22, 2003 at 10:29:38AM +0200, Roul Oldenburger wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> 
> most time I am only using gdb and most time via ddd but I have got a 
> question for gdb internals.
> 
> I am trying to reconstruct type descriptions for a tree of structures 
> from stabs debug informations included in executables.
> 
> Using for example 'ptype my_structure' in gdb delivers me components and 
> types of my_structure but it looks like gdb prints part of the source 
> code ... or does it evaluate its symbol tables or stabs information via 
> BFD directly?
> 
> Furthermore I need to know the offset/address of each component of each 
> substructure in the structure tree ... we are using quit complex 
> structures.
> 
> Using 'objdump --stabs' I will get all the information/ type 
> descriptions I need but I hope there is another way to retrieve this 
> information rather than working it out from the text in .stabstr.
> 
> How does gdb does it?

From the debug info - i.e. the text in .stabstr.

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz
MontaVista Software                         Debian GNU/Linux Developer